The head of the country's largest teachers union Monday lambasted a test-driven educational culture that he said sets students up for failure.

Speaking to 9,500 teachers and educational support employees at the National Education Association's Annual Representative Assembly at McCormick Place, union President Bob Chase said the current "testing mania" does a disservice to students because it ignores inequalities between rich and poor school districts.

Struggling students who fall short of standards don't get enough chances to catch up, he said.

"Days, even weeks, of valuable class time are now being consumed by test drills. Material that's not on the tests, especially in the arts and sciences, is being tossed out."

Though Chase said he supports high standards for students, he said the current standardized testing system would benefit from a generous dose of common sense.

In an interview, he praised a proposal issued Monday by the American Federation of Teachers that would allow students who have trouble meeting standards to tack on an extra year of high school.

"I think it has a lot of merit," he said. "I'd like to see programs in place to [help students] achieve standards. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about."

Gov. George Ryan, who also addressed the gathering, said the five-year high school option "would be something I'd look at."

"They talk about summer schools and mabye lengthening high school. I don't know," he said. "That's going to take a study by a lot of people to decide."

Ryan touted his spending record on education and won applause for promising to continue investing tens of millions of dollars to hire teachers and reduce class size.

The NEA used the gathering to martial its 2.5 million members' political clout behind issues like gun control and opposition to vouchers.

In his speech, Chase took aim at the National Rifle Association and raised the specter of a conservative president who could appoint Supreme Court justices unfriendly to the union's position on such issues as school prayer, vouchers and employee rights.

"We must exercise the power of us to prevent this from happening," he said.